DIY Radon Mitigation System

Shortly after purchasing our new property, the home inspectors reported back with the results of the radon test. It seems that somewhere in the bedrock beneath my house there lurks a uranium deposit that is emitting radon gas. This gas is bubbling up through the soil and accumulating in my basement where it can lead to lung cancer. They said that it scored 11.4 and said that it was preferable to have it below 2. This is apparently a common problem around here.

That launched me into learning all that I could about radon mitigation. From there I decided that the best course was the method called "soil depressurization". The ideal is to hook a vacuum pump to the drain tiles that are buried around the foundation of the house in the hope that the bubbles of radon gas rising beneath the house will get sucked into the system and get blown out of the other end of the pipe on my roof.

I shopped around and ordered a special fan for the system on the Internet. The rest of the materials were purchased locally at hardware stores. As you can hopefully see in the picture, I sealed the drain sump in my basement floor by covering it with a sheet of 1/4" thick acrylic which I bolted and caulked to the floor. The vacuum system and the sump pump were mounted through the plastic using rubber gaskets.

That being done, all I had to do was run the pipe outside and install the fan. Most people simply go through the nearest wall to the outside, mount the fan there and run the pipe up the side of the house to the roof. Unfortunately, I decided to follow a more difficult course because I didn't like where the fan and exterior pipe would have been positioned next to our back deck. Instead, I ran the pipe up through the basement ceiling, into a pantry closet on the ground floor and then up into the attic.

I am happy to report that the project is finally complete and operating. I have felt terrible that the kids were being exposed to radon and will sleep much better now. In a week or so I'll test the air in the basement. A coworker of mine told me today that his house had the same problem and was rated at 13.5. He hired a contractor to install a system similar to mine and the test afterwards showed that the rating was reduced to 0.7! I'm crossing my fingers for good results!